Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Use a Sauna

Did you know that sauna bathing is really good for you? How much you know about what happens when you sweat in a sauna? What are the benefits to your overall health when using a sauna on a regular basis? These are some questions that I will endeavor to answer while we discuss the top 5 reasons why I think you should use a sauna.

Stress Relief

If you were to ask regular sauna bathers what is the number one reason they sauna, I am pretty sure a large percentage of them would cite stress relief as the number one top 5 reason why they incorporate a regular sauna regimen into their daily or weekly lives. The design of most saunas is pretty simple, without the various types of media that are constantly piercing our conscious and subconscious minds to invade and thwart our efforts to clear our minds and de-stress. Taking the time to just sit back or lie back and relax in the heat of the sauna and clear your mind of the meetings, the problems with the kids, the crazy people at work or what you are going to prepare for your family for the evening meal, can go a long way to relieving you of your stress burdens. You can actually enter the sauna room emotionally and mentally spent and emerge rested and revived physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically, ready to face the rest of the day.

Soothing Heat for Those Painful and Aching Muscles

Let’s talk about another top 5 reason why you should sauna. How many times have you come home from work, school or from a game of basketball or football with your friends and needed something to help ease your aching and painful muscles? The heat from the sauna helps to ease the aches and pains in your muscles and joints by releasing endorphins that can have a soothing effect on the pain of arthritis and sore, aching muscles. The heat from the sauna causes the body temperature to increase. When the body temperature increases, the blood vessels dilate and blood is able to be circulated more efficiently. The increased blood circulation helps to speed up the healing process that is required to heal those painful, aching muscles and joints.

Saunas Flush Toxins from the Body

This top 5 reason to sauna incorporates a body function that most of us try to avoid – perspiring. The sauna bath has been referred to historically as a “sweat bath” and it has been used for healing for many centuries in many different cultures all over the world. Why is sweating –something that so many of us feel is “gross” and nasty – a healing activity of the body? To explain this, let me explain a little bit about what happens when you sweat. When your body temperature heats up and those blood vessels expand to allow more blood to flow through them, the blood carries toxins from everywhere in your body. The toxins that are present have come from the air you breathe, the foods and drinks that you ingest and from medications taken for a myriad of reasons. Those toxins are stored in various types of tissue located all over your body. The blood carries those toxins from the various tissues in your body to just below the surface of the skin. This is where thousands of sweat glands are located. The pores of those sweat glands just beneath the skin are opened with the heat of the sauna and from them pour the sweat fluid that contains the toxins. Sweat has been called the third kidney because the make up of the fluid called sweat is quite similar to that which is excreted by the kidneys.

Amazing Skin Changes

This top 5 reason why you should sauna will likely get the attention of all of the ladies out there. The quest for glowing, smooth, supple and beautiful skin goes back many centuries as men and women alike have tried to retain a youthful appearance as they continue to celebrate birthdays. Millions of dollars are spent annually today on lotions, creams and other cosmetic preparations in countries all over the world by men and women in an attempt to preserve their youthful countenances. The heat from the sauna opens the pores of the skin and allows all of those toxins and impurities to escape. This is a deep cleansing that our normal soap and water bathing can’t touch. The skin color, tone and texture are improved by regular sauna bathing without all of the cosmetic products marketed today.

Excellent Cardiovascular Benefits

This top 5 reason why you should sauna is one that everyone needs to experience, regardless of your age or health situation. To properly engage in sauna bathing, one must first heat the body and raise the temperature of the body, then a period of cooling off is required, followed by another heat cycle and a cooling cycle to follow each heat cycle. It is recommended that one allow one and a half to two hours of time to properly sauna to give plenty of time for multiple heating and cooling cycles. The importance of the heat and cooling cycles is what is happening to the blood vessels in each of those cycles. When the body temperature goes up, the blood vessels dilate, as we have stated above. When the cooling cycle takes place, the body temperature goes down and the blood vessels constrict. This expanding and constricting of blood vessels all over the body is similar to what happens when cardiovascular exercise is being done. The cardio benefits of sauna will never replace the need for real cardiovascular exercise, but for those people whose health situation prevents them from exercising regularly or aggressively enough, the cardio workout provided by the heating and cooling cycles in the sauna will provide some cardio benefit for them.

I am sure there are many, many more reasons why you should sauna. These are the top 5 that get my attention. Sauna is a healthy way to release toxins from your body that can build up and cause serious health conditions like coronary artery disease, diabetes and chronic inflammatory conditions. It provides a way to relief your stress burdens and to ease those aching and painful muscles and joints. How many more reasons do you need to get into a regular sauna bathing regimen?

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innerspin 4 years agofrom uk

Congratulations, you've made a sauna sound quite appealing. I hate being too hot, so haven't given them much thought. These reasons will make me think seriously about having a go.

Lucy Jones 4 years agofrom Scandinavia

A sauna is good for so many things. It does wonders at soothing an aching body. It can totally relax every bit of the body, from top to toe. Cleans out the pores a treat. Up here in the north we use the sauna a lot - first into the sauna, then plunge into a cold pool or freshly fallen snow. Great for the circulation. Nice hub - thanks for sharing. Voted up as useful.